Monday, October 25, 2010

White Dog, Pink Hindquarters

Background: I have, as regular readers know, a Bichon Frise rescued dog named Zoe. Zoe, like many white haired dogs, is prone to getting "hot spots", skin irritations that are so insanely itchy that they have them madly biting themselves to the point where they even pull out their own hair, leaving the skin bright pink and angry looking. This can be due to nervousness or allergies. During the spring and fall, Zoe can get an occasional hot spot. But when I first got her (she had been abused) she was so nervous that she chewed off about a two inch strip of beautiful hair from her bushy tail. It was six inches of lovely fluffy white fur, then a bright pink piece of bald rat tail and then furriness again. After attempting several remedies, my vet settled on an ointment that calmed the itch and all Zoe's hair grew back. Since then she has never been through anything even nearly that dramatic.

But last night I looked at her as she walked away from the kitchen and I noticed that her entire backside was bright pink. It is often possible to see the color of her skin (white, pinkish and some spots depending on where one looks) through her hair. I lifted her up and tried to get a good look, but she wriggled free. Was it just the hair that was pink? Was the skin naturally a pink color there, or had she been chewing at it? I had just had her groomed a few days ago, so maybe the groomer used something that did not agree with her skin?

Or, worse yet, was it her skin at all? Her rectal area looked especially pink as did her urination area -- oh Lord -- was this the sign of blood? Had she bled and rubbed herself off? I had seen her "butt scooting" the other day...was there a problem? And she had chewed her paw when she got a little pricker seed stuck in it.

OK, call the vet. No sense worrying myself witless. If it was something serious and I waited too long, I would never forgive myself.

As I was getting ready to dash with Zoe to the vet I noticed a small, round, flat plastic jar of purse-sized blusher on the floor with a hole poked in the lid. I grabbed it and stuck it in my pocket. Had she eaten this and then defecated...? Summary

Here I am, with Zoe, racing to the vet for fear that her tiny life was in peril. There she is, sitting calmly with a glowing pink butt and rear legs, especially red around the rectum.

The vet listens to the story, looks at my dog's behind and says "Let's take a sample of this blusher." She takes the tiniest bit on a Q-tip and touches my dog's shoulder with it. It immediately spreads. She tries to brush it off. It spreads more. She tries to wash it off. It spreads more.

And now my dog's shoulder matches her butt.

Bottom LineMy dog grabbed my blusher from the end table near the bed. She bit a hole in it. At some point the blusher turned over and a bit shook out. Zoe sat in it. And probably butt scooted (to discharge the little bit of stuff in her anal glands that the vet found.) So my dog stole blush and then smeared it all over her own ass.

Zoe checked out perfectly in all other ways. The vet is glad I found the make-up or, as she said, "We'd still be here trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with your dog!"

She also said she could confidently say that this was a first. Never before had she had a dog come in because she had blusher on her butt.

They took her in back and washed her off and toweled her dry. I walked out with a white pooch, with only the slightest hint of a pink bottom.